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Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
I have been having a problem printing in high quality mode. We use a HP Designjet 750C+ printer and a Oce 9300 B&W large format.
 
When I print in high quality mode to file or direct to the HP on a large assembly drawing I tend to get major problems with parts missing and large portions of the drawing missing. Solidworks seems to create the file okay but when the progress monitor comes up on the HP it jumps from 25% to 100%. I have been using SWPlot to view the plot files so that I can try to get to the bottom of the problem. I have discussed this problem many times with our SW tech support and HP helpline, but they either blame each other or the network. If I turn the high quality mode off then it will print fine but the 3D views are all blocky.
 
The plot thickens as when I print to the oce (as long as I do a complete re-build on the model) with high quality selected I get no problems whatsoever!!!!
 
And there's more, we use PDF995 to create PDF files, I get the same problem with this as I do with the HP.
 
I can create a plot file using the Oce driver and send it to the HP printer and it will work fine, but in B&W, and I want to be able to use the HP for colour.
 
I've had this problem ever since the high quality mode was introduced, so generally I have to print to the Oce, but for sales purposes etc colour would be better.
 
Woolly
 
 

 

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Can you get more RAM for the HP printer?


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

I started having the same problem with OCE 9600 after upgrading to SW 2005. I think it is a driver problem.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
I'm not sure if we can upgrade the RAM or not, but I don't feel that would be the underlying problem as the error occurs even when I print to file, so the printer is having no input on the procedure.

Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
I have downloaded a Oce driver (colour inkjet 5250), and produced some plot files using this and it seems to work fine by sending these to the HP printer. The only thing is the quality on the HP Designjet 750C+ isn't quite as good as using the native HP driver but at least it works everytime.

Maybe there is a generic HP/GL2 driver somewhere that can be used to create the plot files whatever the printer???

The Oce driver isn't a complete solution as I cannot print direct but the print to file, and then send the plot is the next best option.

Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Wooly,
If you find a good driver for the HP, make sure you post it here... I'm on the same mission.
I plot to our DJ600 and the geometry end up out of position, yet the text, balloons, dims, etc. remain in place. I tried a couple drivers that worked in the past for other programs, but they didn't work. I'm also using SW2005.

David

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
All,
This isn't going to be much help to you all, but I've just started using a new workstation P4 3.6 Ghz, 2Gb ram, XP Pro, 128Mb graphics.
One of the first things I tried was the printing to the HP, and to my amazement it printed first time as long as the model was fully resolved.
I did try it, in lightweight, and I didn't get any gaps in the print, but it did miss off some of the parts.

So all being well, fingers crossed it will keep on working.

Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Interesting ... What were your old computer specs?


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
It was an IBM intellistation MPro, 1.7 Ghz dual Xeon processors, 1.5 Gb ram, 128 Mb graphics, Windows 2000 Pro.
Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

So the only "real" change is the OS. Is the printer using it's own driver or an XP one?

davidinindy ... what is your OS?


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
It is the latest driver for the printer from the HP web site. The funny thing with it, is that I always had to pick the in computer option for processing the plot, if I chose in printer, it would blue screen me and restart the workstation. It doesn't matter how I print in XP it just seems to work, and it is the same driver for 2000 & XP!!!!!

Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

So XP just knows how to use it properly!!


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

We had the same problems with our HP.  Found that in the plotter set up set 'Convert draft quality to high Quality' and under printer properties in options we set 'Convert coleros to pure black' and the problem went away.

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

(OP)
I have tried using the convert option in the past but it never seemed to help a great deal!! I had a look through the colour options and I can't seem to find anything about convert to pure black, but this isn't going to help me much as I want to print in colour.

Woolly

RE: Solidworks 2005 printing probelms

Hmmm. I'm on Win2000 also.
I printed at my past job fine from WinXP...
Maybe this is the problem.
I seriosly doubt I'll get the company to switch OS's for me though. LOL

David

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